Our current Book of Common Prayer calls this feast "The Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple," a name that supplants the older names - "Purification" or "Candlemas" - for what had been for hundreds of years a Marian feast.

What miserable Eve lost
thy dear offspring to man restors,
the way to glory is open to the wretched
for thou has become the Gate of Heaven.

Thou art the door of the High King,
the gate of shining light.
Life is given through a Virgin:
Rejoice, ye redeemed nations.

Glory be to Thee, O Lord,
Born of a Virgin,
with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
world without end. Amen.

And here again is Letabundus, the Christmas Sequence Hymn, sung at Second Vespers; a wonderful way to bookend the entire Christmas season. Here's a lovely version, sung by the Gregorian Singers of the Cremona Church of Sant’Abbondio:

Here's the score, from Hymn Melodies for the whole year from the Sarum service-books:

2 comments:

The Anglican's probably learned to call it the Presentation from the Catholics, who changed its name in 1970 to upgrade it to a "Feast of the Lord" so that it could take precendence over a Sunday. (Feasts of Our Lady do not normally trump Sundays).